COMMUNITY
  Kathy Cox, State Superintendent Of Schools

New Georgia Education Standards

 

Atlanta 8/12/04 - The State Board of Education voted today to allow the Georgia Department of Education (GDOE) to post a strengthened and revised version of the new Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) for K-12 Social Studies and K-3 Reading/English Language Arts curriculum online for public review and comment.

 

 

 

The updated drafts are the result of countless hours of work by many experienced professionals, including national experts, college professors, school system social studies coordinators, representatives of state curriculum associations, and classroom teachers.

 

“We’ve had many of the best and brightest experts involved in the revision of our state’s curriculum and they should be commended for developing world class standards,” said State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox. “Now it’s time for the public, especially classroom teachers, to provide feedback, which we take very seriously.”

 

K-12 Social Studies Curriculum

 

The updated Social Studies curriculum is quite different than what was initially released for public review in January 2004. The original feedback received from the citizens of Georgia and professional organizations helped guide the department through the revision process.

 

Over the past several months, the revision teams met to review public input and make appropriate changes to the proposed curriculum. They enhanced the standards to address the major areas of concern. The work of the revision teams was then reviewed by two national experts, Dr. Glen Blankenship and Dr. Diane Ravitch.

The new GPS draft for social studies offers the following major changes:

 

  • The kindergarten through 3rd grade curriculum provides a better foundation for the study of U.S. history in 4th and 5th grade.
  • Concerns about Ancient Greece in 3rd grade were addressed by limiting the amount of material on Ancient Greece and focusing on the contributions of Ancient Greece to American democracy.
  • The revision of the high school U.S. and World History courses included material that had been placed in earlier grades resulting in two comprehensive courses.
  • The 4th and 5th grade U.S. history courses now include all U.S. history from Native American culture to modern day America. The high school course is now an intense comprehensive examination of U.S. history from colonial to modern times.
  • The 6th and 7th grade courses are organized around world regions. They are historically based, but focus on history that is needed to understand each region in today’s world.
  • In all K-8 courses, history is the focus, however, geography, civics, and economics standards provide for the integration of those disciplines within a history based framework.

 

The economics GPS were revised with assistance from the Georgia Council on Economic Education. The civics and world geography courses were revised by the GPS revision team. The Social Studies curriculum will go before the State Board of Education for final approval in October 2004.

 

K-3 Reading / English Language Arts Curriculum

 

The revised K-3 Reading/ English Language Arts standards are expected to be up for final approval by the State Board of Education in September 2004. Revision teams made some very important changes to the latest draft.

  • More emphasis has been placed on reading from the very beginning of a student’s education. There is gradual growth towards a combined reading and writing focus by third grade.
  • The standards are more grade appropriate and more clearly explain to teachers what students should learn and be able to do.
  • The curriculum provides a better foundation for the more complex topics that students will be expected to learn in later years. The sequence of the standards provides the necessary building blocks for future success.

 

Georgia Performance Standards - Overview

 

The strengthened curriculum will drive both instruction and assessment in Georgia’s schools, providing guidelines for teachers, students, and test makers. Teachers will now teach to a curriculum, not to a test or a textbook. Statewide assessments will be aligned with the Georgia Performance Standards, taking the guesswork out of teaching and providing guidelines for our schools, students, and test makers—and the standards are based on best practices that have proven to be effective in high-performing states and nations.

 

Under the new GPS, each course is rolled out over two years. The first year is spent helping teachers become comfortable with the new content, while the students continue to be taught and tested on the current (old) Quality Core Curriculum. In the second year of roll out, the students will be taught and tested on the new GPS curriculum. It is important to note that the new curriculum does not roll-out all at once. In fact, training for the first pieces will begin this coming school year, with additional courses being added each year until full implementation is achieved in the 2008-2009 school year. A timeline for the GPS phase-in is available online at www.georgiastandards.org.

 

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